Country album? Let’s pump the brakes…
Beyoncé teamed up with Verizon for a Super Bowl commercial tonight, but she was doing a little more than selling cell phone plans. With a “break the internet” angle, Beyonce did her best to actually break the internet by dropping a surprise album announcement, as well as two songs from the record.
“OK, they ready… drop the new music. I told y’all the ‘Renaissance’ is not over.”
And then she dropped this country-inspired teaser to her Instagram.
Keyword being, “inspired.”
The upcoming album, Renaissance: Act II, is set for release on March 29th, and will feature the two songs she released tonight, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” and “16 Carriages,” among other tracks.
And here’s the thing… while everyone in the media is rushing to call Beyoncé’s upcoming project a “country album,” I think we should all know better. It sounds like there will be some roots influence from the Texas native, as well as some western themes and imagery, but let’s not pretend this will be the second coming of Loretta Lynn.
We all know pop artists love to play cowboy, and hell, Lana Del Rey even recently confessed that the motivation for her “country album” was simply because country music was becoming so popular. As if anyone can just throw on a cowboy hat and… do it. I mean, when I complain, it’s called gatekeeping, but if Luke Combs wanted to put out a rap album, I think we’d hear some moaning from the hip hop community.. and for good reason. If you’re gonna do it, have some respect for the artform, whatever that artform is.
Of course, mainstream country radio has done a great job of blurring its own lines between pop and country so it’s not hard to see why all it takes is a cowboy hat, an acoustic guitar and a couple “yee haws” to be called a “country song.”
Nevertheless, we do have two songs out now, so give ’em a listen and form your own you conclusions.
“Texas Hold ‘Em”
“16 Carriages”